Traditional pottery

Монография посвящена системному изложению теории и методов историко-культурного подхода, разработанных А.А. Бобринским и его школой, к изучению древнего гончарства и его продукции как источников исторической информации. Автор подробно рассматривает все аспекты исследования древней керамики и остатков гончарного производства, включая историю развития этих исследований в археологии, технологию изготовления, формы и орнаментацию сосудов, развитие орудий труда гончаров, а также вопросы происхождение гончарства и орнамента на сосудах, роль научного эксперимента и т.п. Особое внимание уделено возможностям использования всей этой информации для исторических исследований.

This chapter evaluates the plain and red ware ceramics recovered during excavations that took place at Rye Creek Project area sites. They are located in the upper Tonto Basin, AZ and span the time period from AD 750 to 1400. The attribute-based analysis focused on petrographic and technological approaches in order to characterize the assemblage under study. Importantly, it includes the first use of discriminant analysis to classify generic and specific sand compositions and uses the discriminant functions to classify the provenance of sand-tempered sherds (pp. 135-169).

"Alameda Brown Ware and San Francisco Mountain Gray Ware Technology and Economics" addresses topics related to the production and distribution of Alameda Brown Ware and the consumption of San Francisco Mountain Gray Ware as reflected in archaeological collections from 41 sites that date from about A.D. 400 through the early-to-mid A.D. 1100s and which are located along U.S. 89 north of Flagstaff, Arizona. The chapter represents the most successful application of the petrofacies approach to sand temper provenance determination to date, given that the compositional data are evaluated using oxidation/refiring of clay and sherd samples, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis, x-ray analysis, and direct evidence of production collected from project area sites. Building on the work of Dean Arnold (1985), included are four tables that summarize ethnographic/ethnoarchaeological data which should prove useful in reconstructing pottery production and distribution systems elsewhere. Table 5.1 reports 64 new distance to clay resource measurements. Table 5.17 reports annual ceramic production rates in 25 potting communities. Table 5.23 summarizes examples of the goods and services exchanged for ceramics. Table 5.24 summarizes 12 distance traveled by foot  to trade pottery measurements.

 
RESUMEN:  El  bodegón  es  un  género  pictórico  de  una  gran  tradición,  representa naturalezas  muertas  que incluyen  flores,  frutas,  caza,  pescado,  vidrio  y  cerámicas.  Es una  pintura  decorativa,  realista  y  cotidiana.  Estas  obras,  y  especialmente  los  bodegones  cerámicos,  tienen  para  los  estudiosos  de  la  alfarería  tradicional  un  gran  valor 
porque se convierten en una fuente de información de primer orden, formas y técnicas en  desuso  o  desaparecidas,  por  ejemplo,  y  proporcionan  detalles  etnográficos  en 
muchos  casos  olvidados.  Junto  a  los  grandes  maestros,  Velázquez,  Zurbarán, Murillo, Luis Meléndez o Goya, en la provincia de Badajoz principalmente se desarrolla durante el  siglo  XIX  y  primeras  décadas  del  XX  una  corriente  de  pintores  costumbristas  y  de 
bodegones entre los que destacan Caballero, Checa, Hermoso, Covarsí, Beltrán, etc. que reproducen  en  sus  obras  piezas  de  la  alfarería  tradicional  de  Portugal,  Manises, 
Talavera, Fregenal de la Sierra y Salvatierra de los Barros. 
 

Ceramics were recovered from five Arizona State Route 77 Snowflake Passing Lanes project archaeological sites — AZ P:8:61 (ASM); AZ P:8:62 (ASM); Five Mile Draw, AZ P:8:63 (ASM); Beethoven, AZ P:8:65 (ASM); and, Spider Hill, AZ P:8:66 (ASM) — whose, excavated contexts date between A.D. 650 and 1150. In addition, analysis of comparative collections from University of Arizona Snowflake Field School investigations of the Connie Site, AZ Q:5:2 (ASM), and Webb Tank, AZ Q:9:36 (ASM), date between approximately A.D. 400 and 900.
Three research questions are addressed. First and foremost, the dating of ceramic-bearing features and deposits. Ceramics were assigned to existing typological categories based on paste, temper, and decorative attributes. The identification of specific ceramic wares and types provides a chronological base from which to better understand the temporal setting of archaeological sites. The second goal was to identify ceramic production and distribution patterns as reflected in temper composition and related data. Studying the temper used in prehistoric ceramics can offer information related to communities of practice, mobility, and exchange. Third, the analysis provides insight into economic subsistence practices as reflected in vessel function data, such as cooking, serving, and storage behaviors.
The combined Snowflake Passing Lanes and University of Arizona field school ceramic data set provided additional information regarding the long sequence of Basketmaker-period ceramic development in the northern Southwest. The data exhibit significant temporal variation in plain brown ware production provenance, vessel form, vessel wall thickness and firing temperature over time. Having documented the many differences between transitional Basketmaker II/III and late Basketmaker III - early Pueblo I pottery collections, we asked the question “What else changed over this time span that may have had an impact on ceramic technology?” and addressed it using macrobotanical data.

This is the first of two chapters that discuss the pottery recovered during recent excavations at La Villa, AZ T:12:148 (ASM). This collection was recovered from features in Madison Street and 13th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona. A total of 14,103 sherds, representing a minimum of 3,819 vessels, were recovered from features located in five spatially demarcated areas. Painted Hohokam ceramic types comprise 25.1 percent of the sherds, red ware 1.4 percent, extrabasinal painted types 0.03 percent, plain ware 73.2 percent, and sherds of indeterminate ware 0.3 percent. The earliest painted Hohokam type present is Estrella Red-on-gray, the latest is Late Sacaton Red-on-buff, and, with the exception of Middle Sacaton 2 Red-on-buff, every intervening ceramic type is represented in the collection; all are well-illustrated. Limited use of the project area during the Classic period was documented in the current collection by the recovery of one Pinto, Gila, or Cliff Polychrome sherd.
Interaction with people living in other portions of the Southwest is documented by the recovery of four extrabasinal ceramic types: Deadmans Black-on-red Ware from the San Juan River region of southeastern Utah/southwestern Colorado; Kiatuthlanna Black-on-white Ware from east-central Arizona/west-central New Mexico; Black Mesa or Sosi black-on-white Ware from northeastern Arizona; and Mogollon Red Ware from the mountain valleys and uplands on either side of the Arizona-New Mexico border. The polychrome sherd mentioned previously may also have been made elsewhere.
The La Villa ceramic analysis focused on three issues: (1) feature and context dating; (2) change through time; and (3) evidence of ceramic production or exchange. The second and third issues are closely related and make extensive use of temper provenance and related data. Subsistence practices, as reflected in the metric and morphological vessel function data, primarily relate to the second research issue. The final portion of the chapter examines ceramic variability related to clay type, temper source, presence/absence of calcium carbonate, firing temperature and atmosphere, as well as the concentration and intensity of Middle Sacaton buff ware production.

The article is dedicated to one of the most important problems concerning pottery decoration. The author puts forward an idea on the boundary between undecorated and decorated clay vessels as well as criteria for distinction one of them from another. Because a lot of modes of pottery decoration affects technologically the surface of a vessel, the author maintains that there are three different states of a vessel's surface: a) technologic; b) technological-and-decorated, and c) decorated. He prescinds 5 general directions in pottery decoration development and about 13 main modes of making ornaments. The special criteria for attribution certain state
of pottery surface to specific mode of decoration are discussed here. Besides that the author asserts that the history of pottery decoration passed through three general stages of development reflected in the appearance of vessels" surfaces: I - unformed, II - partly-formed, III - full-formed notions. These three stages were characterized by the above mentioned three different states of vessels" surfaces.

Abstract. The paper tells about the results of systematization and analysis of ethnography data on pottery production in Mordovia district, collected by Alexander A. Bobrinsky in the beginning of 1960th during complete questionnaire work. There are 75 messages as from the potters themselves (very rare) as from their younger relatives, local school-teachers, and others. Then became clear that most of the local potters were Russian migrants (not the Mordovians) lived here from 17-18th centuries. Distribution the Russian pottery traditions destroyed the local Mordovian ones preserved only in traces. But the Russian potters in Mordovia had retained more archaic pottery traditions than the same potters resided in Russia. Just these traditions have a lot of interest to study. The author investigates the Mordovian pottery production through the system of Historical-and-Cultural approach according to the universal structure of pottery technology and the whole pottery production process as a field of the human culture.
Keywords: Mordovia; ethnography; pottery production; clay vessels; technology; firing; cultural traditions.

This chapter discusses the prehistoric and historic Native American pottery recovered from six sites located in the Paseo de las Iglesias project area, Tucson, Arizona. The Paseo site, AZ BB:13:111 (ASM), yielded the largest collection and most of the pottery there was recovered from late Agua Caliente phase deposits (A.D. 425 - 540). Findings from the Paseo site analysis are consistent with previously documented trends regarding temporal variability in vessel form and function, pottery paste, surface embellishment (plastic deformation, slipping, and painting), and sherd modification. However, the study furthered our understanding of Agua Caliente phase pottery, especially as regards paste optical activity, caliche decomposition, and inferred firing conditions.
Those findings were compared with similar data recorded from transitional Basketmaker II/III (ca. A.D. 420 - 540) and late Basketmaker III - early Pueblo I (ca. A.D. 700 - 850) pottery recovered from sites located in the vicinity of Snowflake, Arizona. Unlike the Snowflake area pottery, the Tucson pottery provides no evidence for a change in firing atmosphere and temperature practices over time. That finding is not surprising, as multiple lines of evidence suggest that storage was the primary function of Agua Caliente phase seed jars—not boiling or simmering. However, the Agua Caliente phase data also indicate that even though contemporary potters working in different portions of the Southwest focused on the manufacture of vessels with similar forms, their approach to firing varied. Tucson Basin potters fired their pottery at relatively lower temperatures, whereas potters in the northern Southwest fired at relatively higher temperatures. That difference appears to relate to the intended functions of the pots—primarily storage in Tucson and multifunctional to the north.

This is the second of two chapters that discusses pottery and other fired clay artifacts recovered during recent excavations at La Villa, AZ T:12:148 (ASM). A total of 14,366 sherds, representing a minimum of 2,555 vessels, were recovered from features located in inner and outer settlement areas in the Jackson Street and 9th Avenue project area in Phoenix, Arizona. Painted Hohokam ceramic types comprise 10.3 percent of the sherds, red ware 0.5 percent, and plain ware the remaining 89.2 percent. The earliest painted Hohokam type present is Estrella Red-on-gray, the latest is Middle Sacaton 1 Red-on-buff , and, with the exception of Early Sacaton Red-on-buff, every intervening ceramic type is represented in the La Villa 2 collection; all are well-illustrated.
The La Villa 2 ceramic analysis focused on four issues: (1) feature and context dating; (2) change through time; (3) evidence of ceramic production and/or consumption; and (4) comparisons of features located close to the plaza and those further away (inner and outer settlement locations). The second and third issues are closely related and make extensive use of temper provenance and related data. Subsistence practices, as reflected in the metric and morphological vessel function data, relate to the second and fourth research issues.

Current evidence suggests that we can no longer think of the origin and spread of pottery technology in the North American Southwest as a unitary and uniform phenomenon. Rather, at least three distinct episodes of innovation and development can now be identified.  The first pertains to the initial development of ceramic technology by inhabitants of the southern Southwest, and appears related to ritual behaviors. The second is characterized by the rapid adoption of a more sophisticated domestic, utilitarian ceramic container technology throughout the area.  The third episode encompasses the time when pottery containers first became essential to a wide range of domestic activities and their potential for symbolic expression and information exchange began.

A survey of a women’s workshop for the production of traditional clay ovens (tandoor) was conducted in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Tandoor making was closely associated with pottery. The skill in making the pottery paste with the recipe “clay + horse manure + ash” was documented. The building was performed with coils or massive bands placed in a circle, with a subsequent beating. Female artisans preserved a skill in making proper vessels with the bottom to wall solid seed-body. A stone turntable with a rotating pivot was used both in tandoor and pottery making. The finished pieces were fired in an oven typical of the local pottery tradition. A conclusion was made that, even in an urbanising world women of the caste of potters retained the most archaic traits of a domestic hand-building pottery. However, the skills recorded are in an unstable state due to economic pressure and intense cultural contacts. Some skills, such as the firing, the use of a turntable, and the usage of manure for paste, were probably transferred into tandoor-making from the local pottery traditions.
Keywords: India, ethnography, pottery traditions, women’s pottery, tandoor, historical-and-cultural approach

Purpose. A brief survey of the pottery community in the Mundhwa area was conducted in March 2019 and February 2020 as part of the Russian-Indian anthropological expedition organized by the Paleoethnology Research Center, State
Museum of Biology (Moscow, Russia) and Savitribai Phule Pune University (Pune, India). The purpose of the study was to provide an initial insight into how traditional pottery functions in these urbanized environments.
Results. Various forms of pottery production have been identified. The most widespread was men’s pottery using a potter’s wheel. Only men are engaged in the manufacture of pottery here – Hinduism forbids women from working on a potter’s wheel. All craftsmen work almost all year round, reducing production during the rainy season. With the rapid urbanization and concentration of the population, the demand for pottery has increased. Potters buy practically all raw materials. The clay is brought by peasants from villages within a radius of 80 km by trucks several times a year. The preparation of raw materials, as well as kneading the clay paste, is carried out by most potters by hand. All potters use an electric potter’s wheel to create the vessels. The surface treatment of products by potters is carried out by smoothing using fingers or scrapers while the wheel is rotating. Firing is carried out in square ovens made of bricks. The firing of products begins in the evening, active combustion lasts two to three hours, after which the oven is left to cool until the morning, when the finished vessels are removed. One firing requires about 150 kg of wood. Pot-ters who migrated here from Uttar Pradesh use open firing for their vessels.
Conclusion. The authors found that: the traditional nature of the craft is preserved in the community: knowledge and skills are passed down through the family line, the potters use traditional raw materials, building techniques and firing devices; resettled potters demonstrate mixed skills in different levels of pottery production, for example using a mix-ture of different natural clays; under the pressure of economic conditions, the electric pottery wheel is spreading, the way firing is organized has slightly changed.
Keywords
India, traditional pottery, potter’s wheel, ethnoarchaeology, historical-and-cultural approach